Complete History Narrative

In 1983, Pulitzer
Prize-winning novelist William Kennedy founded the Writers Institute at
Albany with part of a fellowship awarded him from the John D. and Catherine
T. MacArthur Foundation in Chicago. As part of that award, fifteen thousand
dollars for five years went to the institution of Kennedy’s choice,
the University at Albany, State University of New York. The University
made a commitment to match those funds.

Less than a year later, Governor Mario M. Cuomo signed into law the legislation
creating the New York State Writers Institute, giving it goals and responsibilities
to conduct a broad range of cultural and educational literary activities.
The Writers Institute has a mandate to provide "a milieu for established
and aspiring writers to work together to increase the freedom of the artistic
imagination," and "to encourage the development of writing skills
at all levels of education throughout the state." Tom Smith, UAlbany
English Department professor worked with Kennedy in the organization and
development of the Writers Institute and served as the Institute’s
Associate Director for its first ten years.

Hosted by the University at Albany, the Institute draws upon and complements
existing programs in imaginative writing and the allied arts to help provide
the broadest possible educational base for students of writing and the literary
community statewide. Its programming receives strong support from the Capital
area’s literary community, drawing audiences from eastern and southern
New England, New York City and a large part of central and eastern New
York State.

The Institute is the fruition of Kennedy's vision for a literary crossroads
in Albany. As it continues to grow, the institute's central aim is to celebrate
literature and to enhance the role of writers as a community within the
larger community.

By special legislative mandate in 1985, the Institute was given the responsibility
of awarding both the Edith Wharton Citation of Merit for Fiction Writers
(State Author) and the Walt Whitman Citation of Merit for Poets (State
Poet) every two years. The Governor awards each citation upon the recommendation
of two advisory panels of distinguished authors convened under the aegis
of the Institute.

In 1988 the Institute entered into a partnership with Skidmore College
in Saratoga Springs, NY to sponsor the New York State Summer Writers Institute,
a month-long series of creative writing courses in poetry, fiction, nonfiction,
translation, and editing. The courses may be taken for college credit or
noncredit.

From 1988-1995 the Institute significantly increased its public outreach
by initiating the public radio Book Show. Coproduced by WAMC-FM,
Albany's National Public Radio affiliate, The Book Show was a
weekly half-hour interview program featuring some of the most celebrated
names in literature. Initially hosted by Tom Smith (1984-94), and
then by novelist and short story writer Douglas Glover (1994-95), The
BookShow was
heard on over 26 stations throughout the United States, Australia,
and on the Armed Forces Network.

In late 1995, following the untimely death of Tom Smith, Donald Faulkner
joined the Institute, first as Associate Director, and then as Director.
During Faulkner’s tenure, and with the pivotal efforts of Assistant
Director Suzanne Lance, Secretary Judy Axenson, and Program Fellow Mark
Koplik, the Institute significantly increased its program offerings and
profile. With the creation of a website with and online magazine and expansive
profiles of its visiting writers, the Institute added to its visibility
and promotional efforts. In 1997, in partnership with the Capital Region’s
PBS affiliate WMHT, the Institute expanded The Book Show into
a regular public television program, The Writer. This weekly half-hour
series of video portraits focused on writers who were guests of the Institute.
In 1999 the Institute inaugurated the New York State Summer Young Writers
Institute, a week-long writing workshop for New York State high school
students. Edward Schwarzschild joined the Institute staff in 2001 with
a dual appointment in the University at Albany’s English Department,
to assist with program development and to teach a course based on the work
of Institute visiting writers each semester. Writers-in-Residence Lydia
Davis and Lynne Tillman, joined the Institute as Fellows in 2003 and 2004
respectively. W. Langdon Brown, who had served as Chair of the UAlbany
Theatre Department for many years, joined the Institute in 2005 to direct
the Authors Theatre program. In 2007, the Institute and the University
at Albany entered into a partnership with Fence magazine and Fence
Books, thus bringing Fence editor Rebecca Wolff to the staff.
Office secretary Judy Axenson retired in 2007, and is succeeded by Erin
Booy.

Programs in development include the digitizing and dissemination of the
Institute’s audio/video archive (now one of the most comprehensive
in the country). The goal of this project is to make the Institute’s
archive of visiting writer interviews, seminars, and readings available
to researchers and readers through a web based searchable database. The
Institute is also working toward establishing a Writing Fellows Program,
similar in design to Stanford’s Stegner Fellowships, in addition
to providing a home for Cities of Refuge North America, an organization
that provides safe havens for persecuted writers worldwide.